Edward Sessa author page

After finally finding four entries that could be split to form a new "red" phrase, the challenge for me was to fit the "L-shaped" pieces into a crossword puzzle, along with the revealer. This was a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and I've done my fair share of these this past year. While many western states allowed "right on red" for many years it took the energy crisis of the 70s to make this a national policy. Still, NYC does not allow right on red as a general rule. It's certainly a hazard for us bicyclists and pedestrians, and questions about its real energy-saving benefits have caused many to rethink this policy. I hope the puzzle provided a pleasant challenge to solvers, and even more that we've finally "turned the corner" on COVID.

Da Vinci described poetry as "a painting which is heard but not seen." POETRY was my initial revealer for this puzzle but was nixed. I believe I tried again with MEL BLANC who was known for his cartoon voices before finally settling with VOICE ACTOR. Another revealer I thought of was THE VOICE, a TV show but also an instrument that fits the bill. In any case, the puzzle remains one in which the actual solution never appears in print.

I knew that combining circles with rebuses, as I had to do, would push this puzzle out of a rebus's usual Thursday slot to an earlier day. So it had to be geared to an earlier week entry. I wanted half of each entry to not have a "pop" sound in order to make the puzzle a little more challenging. Because there are so few words that fit the bill, the grid was a workout. The center entry might be unfamiliar to many solvers but was essential to the puzzle. Thanks to Will and his crew for their help in developing the puzzle with their suggestions.

In doing this construction I learned that a grouping of hippos is known as a "bloat" and the answer to the question, "Is the carnival game 'balloon darts' rigged?" - Is the Pope catholic?!

I got the idea for this puzzle after seeing my young grandson sprawled out on the floor playing Life with his dad, my son. That brought back memories. Needless to say their kitchen cabinet was stocked with Life cereal. The magazine (1936-2000), cereal (1961-), and game (1960-) have (had) been around for a very long time. In my submission I had used a reference to Sinatra in the "revealer" in keeping with the nostalgic aspect of the puzzle.

Looking back at this one I do wish I had put a little more "sparkle" in my fill, but did make an effort to make it consistent with an easy monday-tuesday effort. I suppose the puzzle might appeal more to an older solver, one who remembers playing board games with his kids or leafing through the glossy crisp pages of the oversized magazine with its inky smell, but then there are a lot of us "older" solvers still out there. C'est la vie.

I've tossed a lot of puzzle ideas in the past because the theme letter numbers just didn't add up. The main entries in this puzzle needed to follow in sequential order to work, and as I went down the list and counted to 14 four times it was quite a surprise. This'll work. The fact that the first three entries each had an even number of letters dictated that there would be a fourth, a kicker to add another twist to the puzzle.

I was surprised to find 6 theme pairs that shared a common interior letter (couldn't use Caesar-Rubicon, e.g.). Although the paired entries were all pretty short, the asymmetric fixed crossings made the puzzle a bit of a challenge to design, much like a rebus with no flexibility, or a jigsaw puzzle. A black square in the NE would black out a theme letter in the SW, etc.

Will asked for enough fill changes to require some major reworking which required changing the central element STALAGMITES, replaced with BEAUXGESTES, a nice sounding bit of French and at least a close cousin to the title of a familiar classic movie. I could not get rid of ULE in the NW--if someone figures a way to do it please let me know.

I wish I could take credit for the neat repeat clues for 80 and 82-Down, but that's another example of the editor's ingenuity.

This theme required entries in which each beginning/ending word in every phrase could function as both a noun and a verb, and when reversed, the resulting noun had to be some person or animal. In addition, the lengths had to work out for crossword symmetry. It took a while to think up a fifth entry.

I was asked to redo part of the fill, which required some major changes throughout, as is often the case. Although familiar with the term "payables" from business experience I did try to find a replacement entry but couldn't come up with one better.

Don't like the puzzle? Blame the bear.

I think one would have had to be a teenager or adult during the '60s to really appreciate how much a game-changer "The Twist" was to American song/dance culture. The puzzle happened only because Chubby Checker had a serendipitous letter-match in "nineteen sixty." I wish I had been able to lift a circled phrase from the original song but had to settle for words from Checker's song a year later. Just a straightforward puzzle with a little twist.

Bobby Flay is my favorite celebrity chef. His name came to mind one day a couple of years ago and the four subsequent entries followed immediately. When by some odd quirk the numbers added up symmetrically I figured I had nothing to lose by writing it up in a puzzle. Fortunately the term "yuppie flu" has fallen by the wayside as more is learned about the complex debilitating condition that is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Although declared "dead" in the early 90s by Time Magazine, the concept of the "yuppie," like the flu, keeps resurrecting itself, either intact or in mutated forms.

If you're not a big fan of vowel-progression puzzles (you know who you are), at the very least try Bobby Flay's paella and enjoy Herb Alpert's trumpeting in "Spanish Flea," preferably at the same time!

Only PJOROURKE would have made for a split JO but may not have been familiar enough to use and would not have allowed two theme entries to cross the central revealer. I tried to use BANJO for 49-Across but couldn't get it to fit. Will, for obvious reasons, asked me to change my entry (FLOJO) to either BANJO OR VIEJO, hence VIEJO which was new to me. I wasn't sure 32-Down with the unseparated JO would fly, but I guess it added some "blue humor" to an otherwise syrupy (by modern sensibilities) Victorian Era novel.

With this puzzle there were four "seed" words which I wanted to keep if possible, one in each section: HOLMESIAN, leading off the puzzle in the NW, reminded me of the similarly eponymous KAFKAESQUE which had been used in the LAT, BRAIN FREEZE in the NE which would allow for a clue take-off on "cold comfort," BODACIOUS, in the SE, a portmanteau word ("bold" and "audacious"), and TWITTER JAIL in the SW. I wasn't sure this last entry would fly, and the puzzle was only provisionally accepted last June, as Will said he wanted to see if the phrase had "staying power." I hope solvers have some challenges and fun with this one.

The seed for this puzzle was 36-Across, clued as "Mime's mantra?" I recall that there may have been a fourth theme entry but it was weaker than what I thought were three solid entries. While I have often tried to fit in 4 or 5 good theme entries into a puzzle (sometimes successfully, sometimes not), in this case I felt that "less was more" and left things at three. I was very happy that it was accepted for publication, and didn't require any rewrites.

I've done more than my share of puzzles (not all published) that reference nursery rhymes and songs but I guess that comes from working with kids for many years. I realize that dog-themed puzzles like this have probably been done quite a lot before, but when a child's song broke perfectly into two 15s, I saw the chance to use those two lines to border (as a kennel) four little dogs, each at the end of a "leash."

As originally conceived and submitted this puzzle had all the clues begin with the letter "M". I suspect that either some of the clues were a bit too much of a "stretch" or that doing such created a disconnect between the difficulty level of the puzzle entries and that of the cluing as a whole (e.g. a Monday puzzle with Wednesday clues). I think Will kept about 16-17 of these clues. In filling the grid I always had to keep in mind the cluing restrictions I had set up for myself. It was a fun challenge, but I remember an old comment that a challenge for a constructor doesn't necessarily equal a fun puzzle for the solver, which is what may have done this idea in.

In any case, I do believe that each entry can have a reasonable "M" clue associated with it…mmmm…some solvers might even enjoy the challenge of finding a few for some entries themselves.

The starting point for this puzzle was actually the symmetrical interlocking design (and "smiley face"), followed by my trying to fit in some conversational phrases. I was concerned that TYPEWRITER STAND would be a bit dated as well as any reference to the "Brothers" brand but, heck, there are quite a few of us older solvers out there.

Writing themeless puzzles, like solving them, is still a work in progress for me, a learning experience: firstly, to be able to fill the grid with words/phrases that as much as possible allow for inventive cluing. Secondly, this puzzle showed me how Will Shortz can take a potential Saturday puzzle and alter its clues in an astonishingly inventive way to increase both challenge and interest, with a lot of humor thrown in as well.